Proverbs 9:1 (NIV)
Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up its seven pillars.
While we are always working to make a home, those who have actually built a house know it takes a lot of wisdom to build a house.
It requires one to make a thousand small, highly consequential decisions that will have a permanent impact. Making these decisions means projecting oneself out into the future and imagining the day-to-day practical ways a family aspires to live together and the kind of home they want to create. From family life areas to bedrooms to dining facilities to the kitchen and guest rooms to front porches and back decks and on it goes. Then there's lighting and paint and plumbing fixtures and… and… and…
As the saying goes, you build the house and then the house builds you. The thing that matters most, however, is the part that no one ever sees: the footings. When my in-laws were building their house, it took a long time to dig down, prepare the land, and pour the footings. But this was the foundation for everything else that would be built.
Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up its seven pillars.
- What about the pillars or pilings or footings or foundation of our lives.
- What are they?
We could name some lofty-sounding ideals that capture what we want them to be: like the Word of God, the Spirit of God, humility, and love. While listing them can be a good exercise, they are worth about the price of the paper they were written on.
In order to know the pilings and pillars of our lives, we need to look at today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday.
- Did I steep myself in the Word of God?
- Did I consciously welcome the Holy Spirit into my inmost being?
- Was humility anything more than a high ideal?
- Was I intentional about reaching out to other people and serving them beyond my own self-interest in doing so?
Or were those days, like so many others, just another jammed-up amalgamation of hectic busy-ness, undisciplined eating, and frenetic swimming around trying to keep my head above the water and pay the bills?
The houses of our lives will not be built on the pillars and pilings of wisdom unless our days are built on them. This is very easy to want to do, but it's even easier to not do at all.
Partway through this chapter, we read
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
The foundation of wisdom is knowing God. Knowing what he says about you. Knowing that he loves you.
PRAYER
Abba Father, thank you for making the ways of wisdom so plain and clear to us. Would you help me to put it into play in simple, consistent ways in my everyday life? I want your Word to be the first and foremost piling and pillar in my life. I know wanting it won't get it done. That's why I'm praying. In Jesus's name, amen.
PROMPTS
- How do I remind myself that I need to stand on the firm foundation of what God says?
- Not social media or new media or politicians or whatever, but God’s wisdom.
Comments